We found the fields of the spreadsheets of the results of their last study were already concatenated: Total Research, Federal Research, Endowment Assets, Annual Giving, National Academy Members, Faculty Awards, Doctorates Granted, Postdoctoral Appointees, and SAT/ACT range.

The messy, real-world data spreadsheet file had to be modified into the data tables Jolicharts expects. Only few changes were made.

Even if this step is very important when you use data that aren’t designed to be processed, it is not always compulsory. More and more data is already well shaped for analytic tools (like, for example, most of the data you directly export from software or web apps).

STEP 3 – Uploading Data on Jolicharts

Because all the data was on the same Excel sheet, everything was quickly loaded in only one “Adding a data source” click.

STEP 4 – Design Charts

As usual, charts were made with drag and drops. We decided to always filter the only ten first results on each chart. It makes the Dashboard more synthetic and understandable at first glance.

Sharing is caring! You can also choose to share this dashboards with your colleagues, enable them to have real-time insights on your creation in order to get some feedback of your work.

STEP 5 – Design the dashboard

Some colors, icons and source explanation were added, to give it a more pleasant overview and also some visual aid.

Tip: Once you defined the look of one chart-bloc (font size, colors) feel free to copy-paste this nice chart block through your dashboard and then change the visualization.

STEP 6 – Share the dashboard

One click was enough to share our dashboards online. Here is our result, go and see by yourself!

It took less than 2 hours to build this dashboard. Of course, it is not the first time I was making visualizations with Jolicharts, but if you know already precisely what kind of visualization you want to have as a result, Jolicharts is the tool that helps you turn ideas into reality.

We are right now looking for the easiest way for our users to pick Jolicharts up fast. Most enhancements have been suggested by our users and we are really happy to see that more and more people are joining us everyday and reconnecting the next day.

Why so?

On ourLanding Page, we decided on presenting key features so visitors could have a grasp on the potential of the app.

Something that was missing in our website was an appealing Gallery. An easily accessible page, where people could see exactly how their Dashboards and Charts could look like.

After implementing this small addendum, we immediately started to achieve better conversion, by attracting visitors that were ways more informed on what they would find (and not) find, in their embedded business intelligence app Jolicharts.

Today, we are happy to publish an interview of Rupert Schiessl, co-founder of Jolicharts and Verteego. Let’s get an insight of the birth of Jolicharts and the future of the application.

- Hi Rupert! How did you get the idea of Jolicharts? Actually, I am the co-founder of an independent business sustainability software vendor, VERTEEGO. After two years of searching, we were not able to find a reporting tool that was adapted to our needs. On the same time, we were everyday facing the need to create simple, natural and efficient dashboards for our shareholders reporting, business analytic production and clients. Because we exactly knew our needs, so we took the decision to design it by ourselves. We launched the Jolicharts project in February 2012. A first version was launched in September 2012, after an alpha-test period.

- Why using Jolicharts and share dashboards?This service is targeting everybody who wants to give meaning to a bunch of data: software publishers, web agencies, developers, Excel power-users, everybody who needs to share indicators and analysis with their stakeholders, also dealing with different levels of information… possibilities are really wide! Our wish is to propose an innovating service that adds value thanks to simplicity, accessibility and affordability when still being very powerful.

- How does it work? What kind of data can be uploaded, processed? What about social networks sharing?There are three ways of uploading your data: storing your data on Jolicharts, storing your data on your server and letting Jolicharts processing on it, or connect directly your data through a secure API. After uploading, data is automatically processed to be displayed on modular charts. Once designed, dashboards can be shared with all your colleagues, partners, published for everybody and of course, publicized on your preferred social networks like Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin or Google +.

- Are you considering to offer data synchronization with other applications to enable automation of dashboard design?Exactly. We launched the API to enable our users to connect to any service. So many applications are developing their own charting and visualization tools. Jolicharts provides an easy solution for every application designer who wants to embed clean and simple data visualization.

- Jolicharts is a spin-off of Verteego: Why did you make this choice? What are the advantages and inconvenients?Indeed, Jolicharts is a Verteego spin-off. The reason why is because Jolicharts is fully aligned with our strategy at Verteego, which is to provide the best possible service to our customers. The very good news is that Jolicharts answered a very universal need. So we decided to make this service available to anybody: all you need is to sign-up and get started.

- What is the Jolicharts business model?Jolicharts is accessible through monthly subscriptions, depending on the ‘calculation power’ needed to process your data. Sharing remains free and unlimited. Note that it is possible to use Jolicharts for free, and then win computational power by inviting friends.

- What’s next in the Jolicharts road map?

We focus on 2 key points:

Fostering system velocity.

Enhancing Big Data capabilities.

- What was the easiest part when developing this activity? The most difficult part?The easiest part was to explain how useful this service is. Everyone sees the advantages of such an application and looks forward to using it. The most difficult bit was to actually build the technology, which is very far of being straightforward.

- What advice could you give entrepreneurs who would like to found a startup?

Well, I would give three pieces of advice:

Target a big market : It’s easier to win market share than to create a market that doesn’t exist yet.

Aim at a market where you love the ecosystem. You already know your future users, clients, partners and you remain always updated with a market you are passionate about.